“I didn’t say to dunk her again,” Connor said angrily.
“Yeah, but it’s fun,” Spike said, shoving Eve’s head into the filled bathtub again.
“I told you,” Eve spilled clumsily while gasping for air. “They cut me loose. I don’t work for them anymore.”
“Then why help Faith?” Spike asked. “Guilty conscience?”
“Lindsey,” Eve said quickly.
“Who’s Lindsey?” Connor asked.
“He said I . . . he said whatever happens, I should help Angel,” Eve said, still gasping for air.
“I think that weak excuse warrants a dunk,” Spike said, plunging Eve’s head into the water again.
“Who’s Lindsey?” Connor repeated.
“Evil lawyer she used to bone,” Spike said, pulling Eve from the water.
“Please. I’m trying to help you.”
Connor sat on the toilet next to the bathtub. “So what’s the plan? How do you plan to get her out?”
“I’m going to allege abuse at the prison as the reason for her escape. I’m going to demonstrate her mental incapacity to stand trial and have her reassigned to a mental institution.”
“I’m dunking her,” Spike yelled.
Connor threw a hand up and stopped Spike. “Go no.”
“Then I’m appealing her earlier convictions. Once that happens, I’ll have her declared mentally competent, cured more or less. Then she can be released. She spends two years, maybe three in the hospital. Better than twenty to life.”
“Pretty long term project to help out Angel,” Connor said. “Especially considering he neither likes nor trusts you.”
“He told you that?” Eve smiled. “What else did he tell you? Enough for you to know that there’s a lot of things I can say right now that I’m not going to? What’s not to trust, Connor? I’ve kept his secret.”
Spike looked from Eve to Connor. He could see it register with the boy. Eve was keeping a secret Angel and Connor knew. “I always knew Angel was a poof,” Spike said mockingly. “With his fancy hair gel and leather pants.”
“Spike, can you give me a minute with her?”
Spike laughed. “Sure, mate. I think I can do that. I’ll be outside, having a smoke.”
**
“Can you get a GPS on him, too?” Riley said into his cell phone as he stormed into the living room. “Let me know as soon as we know his destination. We’re on our way.”
“What is it?” Buffy asked.
“Looks like the Risen got the job done before we did. Ethan Rayne’s criminal record has been altered. He’s being released in three hours. My guys are going to tag him with a tracking device. Chances are he’ll lead us right to the Risen.”
With great trouble, Buffy stood up and grabbed her crutches. “I’ll leave Will and Kennedy a note.”
“There isn’t any chance I can convince you to stay here and rest, is there?”
“None.”
“As long as I can tell myself I tired,” Riley smiled.
***
Connor looked at Eve with a deep concentration. “Wolfram & Hart. They killed my family. Why?”
“To get back at Angel, I assume. Why didn’t they get you, too?”
Connor remembered finding his family so perfectly that he almost forgotten where he’d been before he went home. First night back for Spring Break, and instead of being with his family he went to Tracy. They’d agreed to see other people at school. But Connor had a slow freshman year socially and was horny as hell. He was having sex with Tracy in her bedroom while his parents were being slaughtered. He tried not to think about that. If he did, he’d hate himself. And Connor didn’t want to hate himself anymore. Angel went to a lot of trouble to make sure he wouldn’t have to.
Connor snapped back to the moment at hand. “So they find me, then they kill me. That’s the plan?”
“How do I know? I told you. They fired me. I’m damn lucky they don’t kill me.”
“And you think getting a hold of me will get you back in the fold.”
“I think helping Faith will get me back in Angel’s good graces. Then maybe he can protect me like he’s protecting you.”
“You must be a really good lawyer, Eve. It’s hard, I mean, it’s really hard to tell when you’re lying.” Connor nodded, seeming to agree with his own statement. “But I think I’m catching on.”
Connor gripped Eve’s head. “I know how to hurt you. I just don’t particularly want to do it. Tell me the truth. Why does Wolfram & Hart want me?”
“Revenge.”
Connor began twisting her head. Eve screamed. “Why?”
“You’re the child of two vampires! Isn’t that enough?”
Connor released Eve. “We have to get Faith out of prison and out of the country. We can send her to Ireland, maybe. My parents went . . . my new ones, I mean. I was always jealous. I’ve never been.”
“Connor, my plan will work.”
Connor glared at her. “That’s what worries me.”
****
The plane landed on a small airfield slightly north of LAX. There was less than an hour of nighttime left. Vladimir threw a jacket over Dawn’s cuffed hands and helped her from the plane to the waiting limousine.
“Where are your friends?” Dawn asked.
“They can take care of themselves. And I can take care of you.”
The limousine rolled away from the airport. Dawn saw light pour through the tinted window, lighting Vladimir’s face.
“Why aren’t you burning up?” she asked.
“The windows,” Vladimir said, knocking on the window. “Very tinted.”
“But, like, if I broke one . . .”
“Then I’d bite you. Even if I didn’t, the driver is not a vampire. She’d shoot you in your head. Then again, that would be an expensive murder.”
“So, this is all about money? What the hell kind of vampire are you? Shouldn’t you be off trying to end the world or something?”
“This world has been good to me. And my family. I am not in a hurry to see it cease to exist.”
Dawn nodded and looked out the windows. The sun was rising on her left and she was facing backward in the limo. “Where are we going?”
“Enough questions,” Vladimir said, leaning back and closing his eyes. “Don’t make me gag you.”
“We’re going north.”
Vladimir’s eyes opened. The almost paternal warmth she’d seen on the plane was now replaced with a ferocity that Dawn hadn’t seen in anyone for some time.
“We’re going back to Sunnydale,” she said anxiously. “Aren’t we?”
Vladimir’s fist shot out quickly, punching Dawn in the forehead. The girl slumped back, falling unconscious into the seat. Vladimir pushed her body up so that it lay there comfortably and at a natural angle.
*****
“There he is,” Riley said. “Look how smug he looks.”
“Complete with a car and driver from his friends at Wilson & Cole, Partners in Law,” Buffy said. She looked down as she moved her legs. “They’re doing better. Barely hurt at all.”
“That doesn’t mean they’re healing. It just means the Codeine is doing its job.”
“Thank god for small favors.”
“And large pills,” Riley answered, putting the car in gear.
“Actually, Willow helped me a little with the healing.”
Riley frowned. He knew magic had its uses. He also had more than a few run-ins with bad-ass Wiccas who became a bit too bad ass for their own good. Or anyone else’s. Unfortunately, Willow could be counted among them. Although Riley hadn’t been there for the witch’s dark time, he knew about it and it unsettled him still.
“She took it easy,” Buffy continued. “Because she respects your concerns. But I have to say, I’m in pretty good shape here.”
Riley wasn’t yelling, like Buffy expected. In fact, it was much worse. He was silent and concentrating on the figure of Ethan’s car as it pulled away. Riley drove after, still silent and giving no feedback to what Buffy had said. He mercilessly left her to imagine what must be floating through the soldier’s head. His silent disapproval was a harsh punishment. Buffy couldn’t stand it.
“God, I hope he leads us to Dawn,” she said, now trying to change the subject..
The car carrying Ethan jetted forward, speeding through traffic. Riley slammed on the gas to follow. As Ethan’s car approached an intersection, the light turned yellow and Riley eased off the gas.
“What are you doing?” Buffy yelled. “Follow him!”
Ethan’s car made it through the light just after it turned red. Riley slammed on the brakes as cars crossed the intersection.
“Why didn’t you follow him?” Buffy yelled.
“We have a tracking device on him, remember? He won’t go to Dawn or the Risen until he thinks he lost us.”
Buffy frowned, but didn’t speak. She hated waiting and she hated being wrong. She knew Riley was right. Riley drove, following the signal left by Ethan’s tracker.
“That’s odd,” Riley said. “He’s heading back toward Chicago. I would have expected the Risen would want to be somewhere desolate.”
“There are desolate parts of Chicago.” Buffy could barely wait until the beeper stopped moving and they took Ethan. Buffy felt a rush of relief just knowing that Dawn was in the area and that by tonight, the Summers sisters would be reunited.
*****
Connor walked out of the bathroom to find Spike sitting on the bed, looking at the floor.
“Nothing good on TV?” Connor said nervously.
Spike quietly shook his head no.
“So, I have an idea,” Connor said.
“I’ll bet.”
“You’re going in with Eve. And you’re going to bust Faith out.”
“Oh. Am I, now? Tell you what, mate. Your plan. You’re the inside man.”
“I can’t do what you do,” Connor said.
“Really? You can from what I’ve seen.”
“I can’t . . . I can’t resist bullets.”
“Oh. This sounds like a lovely plan.”
“That’s only if the plan goes sour.”
“Listen mate. Me getting shot by bullets isn’t like you getting doused with holy water or grabbing a cross. It hurts when I get shot. A lot. Don’t mind doing it to grab your ass out of a gunfight . . . actually, I do mind that. Don’t know what I was thinking back there. Point is, if Plan A is me getting shot in the back, then you and Eve need to go back into the bathroom and cook up plan B.”
“We’re on plan B. Actually, we’re on plan fucking D. I’m running out of ideas and Faith’s running out of time!”
Spike pointed to the bathroom. “Lawyer girl gets her off on the insanity plea. That’s plan D.”
“Do you really trust her?”
“No. But I trust her more than I trust you. Known her longer.”
“What?” Connor yelled, approaching Spike angrily. “What’s your fucking problem?”
Spike jumped from the bed and stood in Connor‘s face. “You really give me the creeps, twerp. And a week of hanging out with you has turned out to be one of the worst in my unlife. And that includes when Dru dumped me for a chaos demon.”
“You’re the one who seems all buddy buddy with the vamp that grabbed Dawn!”
“And you’re getting all chatty with the lawyer in the bathroom that you supposedly don’t know! What happened between your parents and Wolfram & Hart?”
“They brought me to see Angel. That’s it.”
“After that. What did Wolfram & Hart do to them?”
Connor was grinding his teeth. “They killed my parents,” he said in an inhuman hiss. His blue eyes, usually almost the color of the Caribbean Sea, seemed almost black under his furrowed brow.
“That’s it.”
“That’s it,” Connor said through clenched teeth.
“Alright, then.” Spike looked through the bathroom door. No doubt Eve had been amused by their little argument. “This is the best you can come up with? This Spike-gets-shot plan?”
“You’ll have an opportunity to ask her. Faith, I mean. You can ask her what she wants. If she says trial, we let Eve do her thing. If Faith wants out now, then we do ours.”
“When am I going in?”
“Tonight.”
******
“Shit!” Riley said, slamming on the gas.
“What?” Buffy said with a mixture of anger and worry.
“His tracker just took off like a bullet. Or a plane.”
“Speak English, not spy!”
Riley looked at Buffy sadly. “Dawn’s not in Illinois. Ethan’s flying out of O’Hare. I’m pretty sure it’s O’Hare.” Riley pulled out his cell phone.
“God damn it, Riley!”
“At least it’s commercial. A private jet could land anywhere, we’d have no clue of the destination anyway, and we certainly couldn’t beat him to the . . . Vaughn!” Riley held up his hand to indicate he needed to talk on the phone.
“I need you to search westbound flights out of O’Hare in Chicago for a passenger named Ethan Rayne. If you draw a blank, find me one that took off within the last ten minutes.” Riley smiled. “I sure do, buddy.”
Riley hung up and dialed another number. “I’m going to owe a lot of favors by the time this is over . . . Jack, I need you to get me and another agent on a west bound flight out of Scott Air Force base in Belleville, Illinois. Destination to be determined.” Riley sighed and nodded. “I know. I know. But just do it. And ASAP.”
Riley rung off and kept driving. “He’s going to have a three hour head start. But I think we can make that up in the air.”
*******
Connor was done painting the van. He took the overalls off to reveal a police uniform. Spike, hair died black and wearing a suit, broke into laughter as he entered the garage with Eve.
“Is that your disguise?” Spike cackled. “You look like a twelve year old in a cop uniform.”
“Wait,” Connor said. “Check it out.” He pulled on a fake mustache.
“Oh, that’s much better. Now you look like a twelve year old with a mustache in a cop uniform.”
“Better than looking like some half-ass, low-rent Wayne Newton impersonator.”
“Wayne Newton?” Spike said incredulously. “At least give me Elvis, mate.”
Connor climbed into the van. “Take Eve’s car. I had to ditch the one I nabbed from long term parking.”
“Where’d you get this one?”
“Used car lot,” Connor said, closing the driver’s side door. “They won’t notice it’s missing until Monday. Downside is that if anyone takes too close a look at the inside, they’re gong to see how phony the bars and Plexiglas are.”
“Wait, wait, wait. How do you know how to hotwire cars?”
“I met some disreputable people in my Mech E and EE classes. They knew some stuff. I’m a fast learner. But look. I gotta go pick someone else up. So do you want to maybe know more about the parts of the plan that haven’t happened already?”
Spike shrugged. “Sure. Why the hell not?”
********
Faith stepped into the interview room and immediately hit the floor laughing. “You’re kidding, right?” She looked at the dark-haired Spike wearing a charcoal gray suit.
“Faith,” Eve said calmly. “This is my junior partner, Marshal Flinkman.”
“You’re assistant?” Spike said in his regular, British accent. “Bugger that. You’re my assistant.”
The guard, already accustomed to Spike’s faux Minnesota accent, looked at the vampire oddly.
“Little joke us junior partners have, don’t you know,” Spike added quickly.
Faith covered her mouth to stifle her laughter. The guard left, slamming the door behind him and leaving the three in privacy.
“So, Halloween’s come early, is it?” Faith laughed.
“Connor’s waiting outside,” Spike said. “He wanted you to be the one to decide. We can sit back and let Eve try to get you acquitted--”
Faith laughed. “Sorry. Hearing William the Bloody say ‘acquitted’ . . . that’s entertainment.”
“Faith,” Spike interrupted. The seriousness and urgency of her tone got her attention. “If you want out, Connor says he can spring you tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“Faith,” Eve said in her sweetest tone. “You should be advised that you have a strong chance of--”
“Fuck that,” Faith said. She looked at Spike. “Do it.”
Spike pulled Eve’s cell phone from her pocket before she was able to utter her first syllable of protest.
Quickly, Spike dialed the number of Buffy’s cell phone, now in Connor’ possession. “We’re on.”
Connor sat in the back of the van. He was laying flat against the floor and staring at a laptop computer hooked up with wireless internet. “Twenty minutes,” he said into the cell phone. “I’ll call you back.”
Spike scooted his chair next to Faith and leaned forward to whisper. Eve, though standing in the same place, somehow seemed as if she were closer, listening. “Little room, luv?” Spike said derisively.
Eve scowled, folded her arms, and stepped into the corner.
Spike leaned to Faith’s ear and whispered. “What I’m about to say is very important. I need you to listen like your life depends upon it. Because, luv . . . it does.”
Connor was typing frantically and sweating. As he hit the ten-minute mark, he wasn’t nearly as far as he needed to be. Ten minutes later and he was still only two-thirds done. He quickly called Eve's cell with one hand, still typing with the other hand.
“Yeah,” Spike answered.
“I need another ten,” Connor said.
“Hacking a loony bin’s computer not as easy as you thought, huh runt?”
“Bye,” Connor said, hanging up. The frantic typing continued. Finally, with less than a minute to spare, the order went in. Connor at last turned and tossed the phone to a man in the corner. “Call him,” Connor said, pulling on his fake mustache.
The man dialed. “We’re ready.”
“Right,” Spike said. He stood up. “So, Faith, ready for your transfer back to the pen?”
“Ready,” Faith said, standing up.
“Alright, now I need to know,” Eve said, stepping forward. “What’s going on?”
Spike banged on the door to indicate they were ready to leave. “You and me are leaving. Faith goes back to her cell. We go back to the motel and I tie you up. But not in a fun way.”
*********
True to his word, Spike had tied Eve up in the motel room, then hit the sewers. Connor pulled the van up in front of the hospital. It was between two much larger vans. Seeing the size of the vehicles book-ending them, the man in the back shook his head. “This is never going to work.”
“We got the uniforms,” Connor said from the driver’s seat. “We got the uniforms. We got the paperwork. We got the logo on the side of the van. These guys are bureaucrats. It’ll work fine.”
“This is your van?” a security guard said, walking up to Connor’s window. “Little puny, no?”
“See?” the man in the back whispered quietly, so that only Connor would hear.
“Budget cuts,” Connor said, handing over his paperwork. “Fucking Schwarzenegger.”
“I heard that,” the man said, taking the papers and handing Connor more in return. “Here she is.”
Faith, hands and feet manacled, was slowly walked out between three guards. The back door of Connor’s van opened and a man in a police uniform with a rubber M-16 hopped out. The weapon was convincing enough to get them through the next seven minutes.
“Angel?” Faith said, seeing the man in uniform. “And, um, ministers of grace defend us,” she added quickly. Faith smiled at one of her guards. “I read a lot of Shakepeare in the can.”
Angel grabbed Faith and helped load her into the van, then climbed in himself. As soon as the back door was closed, Angel grabbed a pair of bolt cutters hidden in the back and snapped the leg irons and handcuffs off. The back of the van was made up with fake benches and bars to look like a prison transport.
“You did all this in one day?” Faith asked.
“Yeah,” Connor smiled, glancing in the rearview. “But none of it’s sturdy, so just don’t sit on it. Or touch it. Or breathe on it.”
“Spike didn’t have time for details,” Faith said. “What’s with the company?”
“I only had so much time to hack your record. The hospital knows you’re supposed to have three transports as a precaution. Didn’t have much choice. But Spike filled you in on the rest, right?”
Faith nodded.
The three vehicles started rolling forward. A large armored police carrier in the front. Another in the back. Connor’s puny van in the middle of the convoy.
“Angel, bro, I missed you something fierce,” Faith said, hugging him.
Angel hugged her back. “Don’t get to used to me. I’m not going to be here long. Connor called me in when they lost you in New York.” Angel looked to the front. “Ready?”
“Ready,” Connor said.
Angel pulled out the faux Plexiglas separated between the cab and the back and climbed into the front seat. He gripped the wheel.
“Okay,” Connor said. “Take it.”
In a move, a pair of moves, actually, so quick and choreographed Faith could barely tell what happened, Angel took the wheel and Connor hurdled backward over the seat and into the back of the van.
“First drop, coming up,” Angel said. “Right after the turn.”
Connor rolled back a piece of carpet and pulled out a section of the floor, creating a hole in the van. Nothing stood between them and the street below.
“I’ll say it again,” Faith smiled. “You did all this in a day?”
Connor smiled. “I’m handy. And I work fast. You ready?”
Faith nodded and took Connor’s hands as he helped balance her over the hole. “Spike’ll be there to help you.”
Faith nodded again, but looked down, concentrating on the hole below and the task at hand.
“Three,” Angel said. Faith tensed, looking at the ground below. “Two.” Faith bent her knees, gripping Connor’s arms so tightly her knuckles were white. “One,” Angel said as he drove toward an open manhole cover. Faith was in the moment now. No more preparation. Nothing more to be done. Nothing more could be done. It was all in the action now. “Drop,” Angel said.
As the open manhole appeared beneath the hole in the van floor, Faith released Connor’s arms and slid her feet into the hole. A pair of arms reached up from the sewer, gripped Faith, and pulled her down hard. Her head cleared the bottom of the van a split second before it would have scalped her. Faith landed with a crash on top of Spike in the sewer below.
The van after Connor’s turned the corner and rolled on, oblivious to the escape that had just occurred.
She breathed heavily, filled with adrenaline from the task she’d just performed and the very fact that she was free again. She looked around the sewer and inhaled deeply. She never believed free air would smell so . . . putrid.
On the street above, the van rolled on. Connor now hovered over the hole.
“Connor,” Angel called from the driver’s seat.
Connor looked up, expecting the countdown to his own drop. Instead, Angel looked back and smiled. “It was a good plan, son,” he said with a deep pride.
Connor smiled as he stared up at his father. “Thanks, dad.” He wanted to enjoy the moment longer, but there was no time. He quickly jumped headfirst through another manhole into the sewer below. Connor crashed into the waste and immediately looked up to see the van behind him rollover the manhole and onward, still oblivious to their escape.
Connor briefly worried about his father. But his escape was simpler. As soon as possible, jump from the van and run like hell.
Connor turned when he heard the splash of feet running through sewage toward him. Faith and Spike came to a halt in front of him. Connor smiled. “Next jailbreak, there’s going to be less sewage involved. In fact, I’m guaranteeing at least 16% less sewage.”
**********
It was nighttime and he wanted to let her sleep. She’d slept so little lately. Still, Riley placed his hand on Buffy’s shoulder and gently shook her. Her eyelids fluttered open to reveal green eyes that, once vibrant and full of life, were now cold and hard.
“Looks like Rayne was on a private jet after all. He landed an hour ago.”
The disconcerting feeling Riley’s silence caused Buffy earlier was visited back on him tenfold. She didn’t speak. Her face showed no emotion. She didn’t even blink. She just kept him pinned down under the glare of those cold green eyes.
“He landed somewhere miles from any airport,” Riley continued after a minute. He was desperate to kill the near silence now in the transport carrier.
Buffy stared at him for a few more seconds. “Where?” she said at last.
Riley looked down nervously. He was unable to make eye contact. “Sunnydale. Ethan Rayne is back in the remains of Sunnydale.”
Trivia
Spike’s alias, “Marshal Flinkman,” was a character on the show Alias. Riley’s military contacts, Vaughn and Jack, were also named after characters on that show.
|
|
|
|
Rave
Barbie Girl (Becca)
biscuit07
Filmtheory (Jim)
Malice (Jess)
MebbtheScribe (MichaelB)
Reset (Allie)
Shay (Marrisa)
somnambulist29 (Shea)
Stephanie Loss
Wendyness (Wendy)
Questions?Contact Us
|
|
All stories on this site have been archived with the authors' consent. Do not copy these stories for your own uses without the express consent of the author themselves. Buffy the Vampire Slayer TM and Angel TM are © UPN, WB, Fox and its related entities. All photos on the site are © UPN, Fox, Warner Bros, and/or their respective owners. No profits are being made by use of these images.
Powered with the assitance of eFiction.
|
|
|
